462 CLASS INSECTA. 



is narrow and elongated. The mentum is in the form of a 

 triangle, truncated transversely at its extremity. Such are 



Lethrus, Scop. Fab., 



Of which the species, very few in number, are proper to 

 Hungary and the western provinces of Russia. 



Lethrus cephalotes, Fab. Fisch. Entom. de la Russe, I. 

 p. 133. XIII. i., distinguished from the other species by its 

 colour entirely black, its corslet and elytra smooth, is, ac- 

 cording to the celebrated Professor Gothelf Fischer, an ani- 

 mal very hurtful to cultivated places, because it seeks, in 

 preference, the buds or leaves scarcely apparent, and cuts 

 them neatly with the trenchant pincers of its mandibles. On 

 this account it is called, in Hungary, where it does much 

 damage to the vineyards, Schneider (Cutter). The breast 

 advancing much below the abdomen, and the hind feet ap- 

 pearing to be inserted near the anus, it climbs very well, and 

 returns by moving backwards. After having cut the heart 

 of a plant, it moves backwards like a crab, carrying its prey 

 into each hole. Each hole dug in the earth is occupied by a 

 pair; but in the time of coupling, a male stranger often 

 presents himself, desiring admittance. Then commences a 

 vehement combat, during which the female closes the en- 

 trance of the hole, and always pushes the male from behind. 

 This combat does not cease but with the death or flight of 

 the male stranger. This philosopher has described three 

 other species unknown before his time. {Ibid. p. 136, 1 40.) 



All the other arenicoli have the knob of the antennas com- 

 posed of leaves of the ordinary form, and applied one over 

 the other in the same direction, or like those of a book. 

 They compose our sub-genus Geotrutes, or that of Scara- 

 hoeus of Fabricius, and from which the following sub-genera 

 have been since detached. 



Those in which the knob of the antennae is oval, or ovoid, 



